On a former orange grove between Quinta do Lago and Vale do Lobo, Miguel Sequeira spent five years constructing a space that refuses to be merely a restaurant. Authentic is, above all else, a work of art.
The first thing you notice is the floor. Polished marble, the kind that holds light rather than just reflecting it, running the length of a dining room that feels, somehow, both grand and quiet. There are mirrors, tall and framed, and gold everywhere. This is Authentic, a restaurant in Almancil that opened in June 2024 and has, since then, been impossible to ignore.
It was built on a former orange grove, from the ground up, by Miguel Sequeira, a Porto-born entrepreneur who made his name in Algarve construction and spent the better part of five years turning a blank plot between Quinta do Lago and Vale do Lobo into something he describes as his hobby. The process was long by any measure: two and a half years just to clear planning permissions, followed by months of importing materials from Italy, sourcing Versace pieces for the interiors, and working through the kind of details that most projects abandon.
“I love golds and blacks. I wanted something classical, but adapted to the Algarve.” he says.
The reference point he keeps returning to is the Ritz in London and you get the reference the moment you walk in. The interiors at Authentic sit somewhere in that lineage: the fireplace, the wine wall running floor to ceiling like a structural element rather than a display feature, the private dining room that feels sealed off from the rest of the world in the best possible way. Nothing looks rushed. And, crucially, nothing looks like it was designed to photograph well and feel flat in person. The opposite, in fact.
With just fifty seats inside and twenty on the terrace, the scale was always a choice. This summer, the terrace has been fully renovated with new furniture, chairs sourced from Madrid and an outdoor bar dedicated to sparkling wine and champagne.
What was previously a secondary space now reads as a natural extension of the interior, open to the southern light.
A restaurant this carefully curated deserves a kitchen to match. Ricardo Luz, the 2019 Chef of the Year who built his experience at two Michelin-starred restaurants, Bon Bon and Al Sud, runs an open kitchen with a philosophy that mirrors the space: no performance, no unnecessary complexity. “It’s what comes off the fish market that comes here. No tricks.”.
Blue lobster from the Algarve coast, fish rice with local prawns, a Beef Wellington served for two with truffle mash that has become the house signature. He came to Authentic with one condition: no tasting menus, no chasing stars. The 2026 Michelin Guide recommended the restaurant anyway.
The Algarve does many things well, but Authentic does something the region rarely pulls off: a space and a kitchen that feel equally thought through. Most restaurants get one right. Here, the marble and the lobster arrive at the same level of care, put together by people who clearly couldn’t do it any other way. There is nothing else quite like it down here, and that, in a coastline full of options, is reason enough to go.
